On my Sunday morning walk along Piney Woods Church Road, I kept noticing evidence of sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua). Perhaps that was partly because it is so abundant. Along with loblolly pines, sweetgums are the dominant trees in the the second, third, and fourth growth woodlands and woodlots of the Georgia Piedmont. Not only do they grow everywhere from seed, but they also sprout from the roots of other trees, making lines of tiny saplings in my lawn. Meanwhile, the deer that browse most undergrowth to brown nubs ignore the sweetgums altogether.
And they can be beautiful — particularly their five-pointed, star-shaped leaves. Here are three photographs from my walk, fragments of an ongoing conversation between myself and the Piney Woods Church Road landscape.
